| Swarm Tyrant |
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Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 6:22 pm
Posts: 9350
Location: Singapore
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Thanks to you all for taking the time to comment on this. It has thrown up a number of points and helped me to get things semi-organised in my mind. To deal with a few of the issues raised:
Jimbo: I am afraid that, yes, it is true that currently my site is seen as an Epic site with Gothic content. I have been worried about the lack of exposure in the Gothic community for a while, so I canvassed a few respected members of the Gothic Yahoo group and the above comment is a direct quote from an email. The fact is, there are a number of sites out there, and if people can choose which to visit before looking at the content, then they will steer away from a site with Epic in the URL. In fact, the same person said that he actually likes the content of the site, but that it still 'felt' like an Epic site. Now, I realise that the simple URL will never be the whole blame, and I also realise that actual content beyond the Warp Rift magazine has been a bit thin for both games recently, but still I do think that this is a problem.
I also realise that changing away from epic40k.co.uk is kind of internet suicide. However, to be honest I am less worried about the loss of hits, as long as most of the regular community moves with the new URL (if it happens). I think that I could take the site onwards to bigger and better things if it was not left with a URL that does not shout anything at all about Battlefleet Gothic, and which appears to cover the remants of a previous edition of the other game! 
I realise that the URL epic40k.co.uk is now well established, but I do kind of kid myself that a few well-placed announcement and 80% of links will be updated...
My plan would either be to move the entire site to a new URL almost overnight, and have a single page at the old address pointing to the new site. Any changes could then be made gradually. Or, to simple slowly take down the old site and reconstruct it at the new URL, and so make the changeover really quite slow, and give people time to move over and get used to the idea.
And yes, having a .net URL really is a draw for me. I know, I am so sad! 
dafrca: On the surface, you are correct. A single site covering both games should not be less work than two individual sites. However, it may be that one month I have a load of updates for Epic and none for Gothic, and another month the reverse. This translates as two updates for a single site, and this make the site appear more active and alive, which can be very important. That being said, one of the main reasons for starting the site in the first place was to explore the interaction between the two games. Now, this has not been covered much at all yet, mostly due to me not getting around to it. However, I would like to set up joint campaigns, interactions and other crossovers. I think that this would give my site something that other sites simply dont have, and that can only be a good thing. If I do split the site in two, I run the risk of both halves being just something that can be found elsewhere on the web. And finally, if I split the site into two, where do things like these forums, the Players Index and other joint articles go?
I understand that it is risky to try to be seen as a site for two games, but starting with a new site would also allow me to sort out my navigation better. For example, I would split most of the content into Gothic or Epic, and then the Gothic stuff would be found at mysite.net/gothic/ The fact is that there is considerable crossover potential between the games, and this was obvious even before EA allowed the use of Gothic ships as support. While I love the idea of having two, internationally recognised web sites (hmmm..  ), I dont want to lack what I think that this site already provides, a place for players of both games to hang out. There are a fair number of players of both games out there.
Please dont feel that anything has been decided here, and please all continue to discuss this, it is very useful for me.
One more thing to say. Whatever changes happen, these board will go through minimum changes. This community is a peak of the site, and to change it radically would be to ignore the time that you guys put in. There may well be minor changes. For example, it is reasonably likely that at some point in the future I will change the order of these boards, putting all of the Epic boards into the same forum/place, and all of the Gothic ones together, rather than organising them by 'wargaming', 'painting', etc. But, at the end of the day, visitors to these forums should not be put out much at all.
Thanks, and keep you comments coming.
_________________ https://www.cybershadow.ninja - A brief look into my twisted world, including wargames and beyond. https://www.net-armageddon.org - The official NetEA (Epic Armageddon) site and resource.
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